Windows 10 Anniversary Update is breaking webcams

22/08/2016

Possible issues with webcams after Windows 10 Anniversary Update

If you have recently updated your Windows 10 edition with the Anniversary Update and you experience issues with Logitech Camera (webcams), the problem is related to a Microsoft’s bad implementation (restrictions) on MJPEG and H.264 protocols.

Microsoft hopes to distribute a fix for the MJPEG issue in September, but solving H.264 will take a little longer. Unfortunately, until there’s a fix there’s not much you can do other than wait.

If you run in this issue, then you may want to try and rollback to pre-Anniversary Update Windows 10. However, remember you only have 10 days to revert your system after you upgrade.

For other people who haven’t yet updated, our advice is to wait.

[Update] A user on Twitter has figured out a workaround that should hopefully stop the freezing issue; if you are comfortable tweaking the registry, make this change:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows Media Foundation\Platform, add DWORD “EnableFrameServerMode” and set to 0

On x64 versions of Windows put 0 in the key “EnableFrameServerMode” also in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows Media Foundation\Platform.

You will then need to restart your PC. According to our experience supporting some customers today, this fix is not working always on the 100% of the PCs.